SkyscraperPage Forum - MONTREAL | Place Ville-Marie | 617 FT / 188 M | 43 FLOORS

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- - MONTREAL | Place Ville-Marie | 617 FT / 188 M | 43 FLOORS | 1962 (https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154454)

MONTREAL | Place Ville-Marie | 617 FT / 188 M | 43 FLOORS | 1962

The quintessential Montreal skyscraper, a canadian landmark and one of the most beautiful skyscrapers built in the 60's, Place Ville-Marie was finished in 1962 by prominent architect IM Pei and signaled Montreal and indeed Quebec's entrance into the modern age.

from wiki:

Quote:

Place Ville-Marie or 1, Place Ville-Marie (abbreviated as PVM; also previously called Royal Bank Tower due to its principal tenant) is a cruciform office tower built in the International style in 1962, arguably the most distinctive building in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is 188 m (617 ft) in height with 46 stories. It was built in the 1960s as the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada. Along with an underground shopping mall, it forms the nexus of Montreal's underground city, the world's largest, with indoor access to over 1,600 shops, restaurants, offices and businesses, as well as many of Montreal's metro stations, a suburban transportation terminal, and tunnels extending all over downtown. A rotating beacon on the rooftop (turning counter-clockwise) lights up at night, illuminating the surrounding sky with up to four white horizontal beams that can be seen as far as 50 km away.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...villemarie.jpg
wiki

Here it is u/c along with its friend the CIBC tower, also finished in 1962.
http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/...re0166_06x.jpg
August 7, 1961; Gar Lunney, photographer

http://www.imtl.org/image/big/_MG_6397.jpg
Imtl.org

http://www.ccum.com/img/2_2_1_2chr.jpg
http://www.ccum.com/img/2_2_1_2chr.jpg

http://i.pbase.com/v3/80/576280/1/47...rch8copier.jpg
courtesy of Michel Jasmin

http://lh6.ggpht.com/Francis132/R4D7...JPG?imgmax=512
courtesy of Francis Picasa web albums.

With the CIBC Tower, PVM provided the catalyst for the downtown and business district to move from Old Montreal to St. Catherine Street. Place Ville Marie is still among the largest office space in Canada. The building has 32 elevators, 900 indoor parking spaces and 1,612 141 square feet

An interesting note, when first built it was the tallest skyscraper in all of Canada, it was taller than any thing in Chicago and was the 44th tallest building in the world. More than 40 years later it is now the 13th tallest building in Canada and the 547th tallest building in the world. ;)

Please feel free to add your own pics of the old PVM, I got some but I'm too drunk lazy to upload them right now.

Much as Place Ville-Marie is a symbol of Montreal, I've always preferred CIBC to it from an easthetics point of view. But, it's a great landmark of the city. I recall watching the rooftop lights from my girlfriend's place near McGill. I miss those weekend trips to the city.

It is such a weird form for a commercial skyscraper. It just looks like a gigantic hospital some days.

I'm hoping you put together some more of these building recaps for Montreal Rico.

another interesting note, PVM (along with its friend and rival the CIBC tower) was the tallest building built in the year 1962 in the world!!!!!!!!!!

That building is very ordinary.

And it needs a good lifting, it looks dirty.

Quote:

Originally Posted by urbino (Post 3966459)

That building is very ordinary.

And it needs a good lifting, it looks dirty.

Huh?

Error in the name Place Ville Marie

It does not have a hyphen! Thank you to remove the hypen in the page buildling.

Someone should post the quote Pierre Burton made about this building when it was finished...talk about a man being wrong,old Pierre missed the boat, the plane, the bus on this one

Strange revival(s) of this thread, strange few posts here in the last 4 years...

Say mr. John, what did ol' Pierre say about PVM?

I have a hard cover book on PVM called La Place from September 1962. It must have been produced to give out to the tenants of the building as a souvenir.
Nothing about Pierre Berton in the book, but what he said was that Montreal had solved the problem of the dying downtown by building PVM.

ttp://news.google.com/newspapers?nid...g=6520,1717946

Really? Strange, downtown wasn't dying back then, in fact it was thriving...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim (Post 5580302)

Really? Strange, downtown wasn't dying back then, in fact it was thriving...

All downtowns were dying from the flight to the suburbs, not Montreal specifically.

Oh I see. Thanks for the link!

It ain't my favorite Mtl skyscraper (CIBC and 1250 Rene Levesque), but it is the most Montreal of all Montreal skyscrapers. Dominates the city like no other due to its sheer bulk and uncommon form.

I Agree that the CIBC is dope. I'd make a thread, but it'd get like 2 replies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rico Rommheim (Post 5626582)

I Agree that the CIBC is dope. I'd make a thread, but it'd get like 2 replies.

That's a poor excuse, make one!

Place Ville-Marie was also the second tallest building in the world outside of New York when it was completed; going by roof height it was behind only Cleveland's Terminal Tower.

Diagram

Love this building. Very underappreciated.